Graft conviction a hell for retiring public servants

“Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It's self-defense. It's patriotism.” Joe Biden

By Alex P. Vidal

THE worst thing that could happen to any public servant is to be slapped and convicted with a graft and corruption case during retirement age.

If there is a jail term aside from forfeiture of benefits, among other penalties, it’s really hell.

The sorrows, anxieties and stress felt by those convicted and their relatives and friends are doubled.

They also have domino effects.

Their health will be affected. When the mind is in deep sadness, the heart is in pain; the body deteriorates.

The children are traumatized.  

Instead of spending the retirement years enjoying the fruits of their labor, they will agonize worrying how to wiggle out from the mess.

Those who are remorseful and bothered by their conscience console themselves by the thoughts that if they could only turn back the time, they would never ever dip their fingers in the cookie jar.

Those who think they are innocent and only unfairly dragged in the fiasco and have not benefited even a single centavo, will fight to clear their names and defend their dignity to death.

But it’s stamina-sapping. Nerve-tingling. Time-consuming.

Not during retirement age.

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JANIUAY Mayor Frankie Locsin, et al can still appeal their conviction for violation of Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or Republic Act 3019 in relation to the anomalous purchase of medicine using Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III’s P15-million  Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) way back in 2001.

In a graft conviction, however, the chances of those who are making an appeal are nil.

The right to file a motion for reconsideration is accorded to anyone convicted of any offense under the principle of due process of law.

The Sandiganbayan is mandated “to give life and meaning to the constitutional precept that a public office is a public trust and to impress upon public officers and employees that they are at all times accountable to the people with their duty to serve with the highest degree of responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency.”

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According to its mission, the Sandiganbayan “carries out this objective by conducting expeditious trials of criminal and civil cases involving offenses committed by public officers and employees, including those employed in government-owned or controlled corporations.”

The conviction by the Sandiganbayan First Division of Locsin, accountant Carlos Moreno Jr., budget officer Ramon Tirador, treasurer Luzviminda Figueroa, Ricardo Minurtio, and businessman Rodrigo Villanueva also carried a penalty of imprisonment from six to 10 years aside from forfeiture of benefits and perpetual disqualification from public office.

If they can reverse their fortune and get away from the hullabaloo with their full faculties intact, the damage on their names has been done.

Until all the legal options and solutions have been exhausted, we can’t say with absolute certainty that they are guilty.  

The preponderance of evidence, however, clearly illustrated the presence of a conspiracy as stated by the court decision, to wit: “The Court finds…conspiracy between accused public officials (and) members of the municipal Committee on Awards of Janiuay…as shown by their respective signatures in the Minutes of Meetings which awarded the subject procurement of medicines in favor of AM Europharma and Mallix Drug Center…(this) gave undue advantage to accused Rodrigo Villanueva, owner and proprietor of said companies.”

Penned by Associate Justice Rodolfo Ponferrada and concurred by First Division Chairman Efren dela Cruz and Associate Justice Rafael Lagos, the 34-page decision was dated February 23, 2015.

Selling life insurance to a dying patient

“A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist.”  Stewart Alsop

By Alex P. Vidal

CITY hall is wishing for the stars if it hopes to find a buyer for the anomaly-ridden P137-million Pavia housing property in Pavia, Iloilo while the ghost of unresolved graft and corruption cases filed against city officials and several private persons is still hovering.

We can’t blame the city government, however, if it continues to cling to its last and only hope: sell the property.

It’s better to try than doing nothing.

The project has been rotting like a dead rat.

It must be disposed of by hook or by crook.

For several years now, it has become an ugly sight for people who pass by the area; it evokes memories of greed and corruption.

The area can’t escape the sight of motorists and even tourists who go to the airport and vice versa.

Those familiar with how the project went wrong can’t help but gnash their teeth, stomp their feet and shake their heads in utter disbelief, anger and frustration as they take one desperate look at the doomed project.

IMAGE

It’s a ghastly image of how the taxpayers’ money was scandalously wasted and stolen by a few privileged and abusive characters.

The longer it stays there, the more painful memory it will give the taxpayers.

But a wise real property buyer will always see to it that the deal is not bedeviled by any legal entrapment.

No rational real property investor will risk his money in a failed government project.

Even if the amount of the property is reduced to half, the nightmare it will bring to the buyer can't be compensated by any gain once he is sideswiped by the legal turmoil in the future.

It’s like buying a drum of fishes in January for a big party in December.

Or selling a life insurance to a terminally-ill AIDS patient.

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MOST death-related motorcycle accidents could be due to the riders’ non-wearing of helmets.

When the bike is hit by a speeding car or bus in the highway, the tendency for the two-wheeled motorcycle is to fly away like a saucer.

If the rider and another occupant don’t have helmets, the impact could kill them immediately; they could suffer from fatal head injuries.

Either their heads, upon landing in the pavement, are violently damaged or pierced through by a pointed object or concrete steel like what happened to famous ballader Ric Segreto many years back.  

Balikbayan biker Manny Alcalde realized this when he met an accident in the highway in Mandurriao district, Iloilo City last month.

“I was in a hurry as I was getting late for a meeting that day,” recalled Alcalde, a newsman in Qatar. “A car in front of me slowed but hesitated to cut my lane, thus I lost control of my motorcycle.”

Alcalde suffered minor injuries in the arm.

“It’s good that I was wearing a helmet,” he hissed. “I picked myself up and rushed myself to the Iloilo Doctors Hospital using the same bike.”

Alcalde said he learned two lessons from the near-fatal road accident as a motorist: 1. Always wear a helmet; 2. Always prepare for an appointment earlier.

The non-wearing of helmets for bikers is actually a violation of

Republic Act No. 10054 or the Motorcycle Helmet Act of 2009.

The law mandates all motorcycle riders to wear standard protective motorcycle helmets while driving.

The law will secure and safeguard citizenry, particularly the operators or drivers of motorcycles and their passengers, from the ruinous and extremely injurious effects of fatal or life-threatening accidents and crashes.

The law mandates “to pursue a more proactive and preventive approach to secure the safety of motorists, their passengers and pedestrians at all times through the mandatory enforcement of the use of standard protective motorcycle helmet.”

French Revolution-like anger vs graft and corruption, abuses accelerates

“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.” Che Guevara

By Alex P. Vidal

AYN Rand would have been amazed by the force and effectiveness of today’s netizens to influence and shape public opinion.

In this generation, they constitute the social media’s New Intellectuals, the most vigilant vanguards of the nation’s social, cultural, and political spectrum via the Internet.

No act of brutality, arrogance, malfeasance and demagoguery in the civilized society can escape the radar of amazing digital world.

A hailstorm of public censure and condemnation awaits those who possess the delusions of putting the law in their hands; those who think they are above the law and reason, owing to their power and influence, pelf and privileges for belonging in society’s higher social and political strata.

Gone are the days when publicly performed criminal acts and other forms of civil disobedience can be kept under wraps and the culprits getting away with impunity.

There’s always a big brother and sister watching: CCTVs and mobile phone cameras.

IDEAS

Meanwhile, objectivist Rand held that abstract ideas are man’s basic means of dealing with practical life.

She stressed that abstract ideas enable man to understand concrete issues, to evaluate them, and to act successfully to deal with them.

Rand further held that the problem with Western civilization was not that it was too intellectual, but that too many of its intellectuals accepted and propagated fundamentally wrong ideas.

Rand believed that what the world needs urgently are New Intellectuals.

As civilization marks this year the official end of the French Revolution on December 15, 1799, we begin the era of fighting graft and corruption, abuse of authority in military and government through a new wave: the social media.

We cannot afford today to give life to a modern Napoleon Bonaparte, the dictator who wanted to overrun Europe had it not been for his Waterloo defeat.

Politicians who want to overrun our treasury via pork barrel and other thinly-veiled acts of plunder and graft and corruption, are the smaller versions of Napoleon.

The specter of graft and corruption in government today is the rallying point of public anger and disgust that transformed into a bloody revolt; the tipping point that brought down the monarchy and cut off King Louis XVI’s and Marie Antoinette’s heads in the revolutionary scaffolds.  

MANTRA

Under the mantra of “Liberte, egalite, fraternity” (liberty, equality, fraternity), French society itself underwent a transformation as feudal, aristocratic, and religious privileges disappeared and old ideas about tradition and hierarchy were abruptly overthrown.

Under the mantra of “tuwid na daan”, the President has failed to curb the age-old graft and corruption.

The rich becomes richer; the poor becomes poorer.

Marie Antoinette wanted to give the French people with empty stomachs cake; our government has been giving us empty promises and empty treasury.

The wealth of the nation has been wasted.

Our leaders have abandoned the spirit that ignited the “Cry of Balintawak” or “Pugad Lawin” of the katipuneros, and the “Cry of Sta. Barbara (Iloilo)”.

We give them our votes and confidence; they gave us shame and scandal via plunder and graft and corruption.

Did Pericles, Julius Caesar also maintain ‘ghost employees’?

“When I saw corruption, I was forced to find truth on my own. I couldn't swallow the hypocrisy.” Barry White

By Alex P. Vidal

IF prostitution is the oldest profession, the issue of “ghost employees” could be the oldest form of graft and corruption among government officials.

Before Jesus Christ was born, history tells us there were already prostituted women and men. 

There were whores of antiquity providing sexual favors in exchange of money, goods and even food.

Before Christianity flourished, corruption was already prevalent in the Roman Empire.

Predecessors of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) already rolled down their curtains on the Romans. 

"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" Matthew (22:21).

Imperial taxes were probably stolen by a one-man dictator in a regime that did not have the media to conduct the check and balance.

The hiring of “ghost employees” probably began even before civil service became an official edict in government.

Was the practice of hiring “ghost employees” by corrupt government officials already rampant during the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome?

Did Athene's Pericles and the emperors of Rome hire "ghost employees" like their modern counterparts?

TURMOIL

In every graft and corruption turmoil or swapping of graft and corruption charges, the hiring of “ghost employees” would almost always surface.

Rhoderick Paulete, among other comedians and showbiz characters who joined the government, was indicted for allegedly pocketing at least P100,000 a month representing the salaries of his “ghost employees” during his term as councilor of Quezon City.

City hall and capitol are the favorite employment centers of “ghosts” or non-existing workers.

Corrupt mayors, vice mayors, governors, vice governors and members of the city and provincial legislatures make a pile from this nefarious scheme, aside from their kickbacks in various projects.

There is a saying that if you want to make a quick money in government hire “ghost employees.”

In this method, everybody is reportedly happy. As long as nobody will rat against the group, and as long as everyone’s lips are sealed.    

When government officials wash their dirty linens in public, they swap charges ranging from receiving regular payola from illegal activities, anomalies in overtime and cash advances, and hiring “ghost employees.”

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POLITICS has destroyed relationships.

Your friends today are your enemies tomorrow and vice versa.

Board Member Manny Gallar and Maasin Mayor Mariano Malones used to be political allies.

Both were loyal supporters of Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. except in the 2013 elections when Malones turned his back from Defensor to support former Iloilo fourth district Rep. Ferjenel Biron who lost to Defensor.

Like a father to a prodigal son, Defensor “reunited” with Malones after the elections.

Gallar, who was vanquished by Malones in the previous elections for board member in the third district of Iloilo, avenged the setback last year by edging Malones’ son.

Since then, their relationship has developed from bad to worse.

Malones rapped Gallar for allegedly maintaining “ghost employees” and questioned his other sources of income.

SALARY

Malones, a prominent figure in the local printing industry, believed that Gallar could not have bought a house and lot, a car and sent his children to private schools on a salary of P40,000 a month.

Their word war was actually the offshoot of the administrative complaints for oppression, misconduct in office, dishonesty and abuse of authority, among others, that Malones faces in the Provincial Board for dismissing Elsa Maternal as the town’s assistant human resource management officer in 2002.

Malones suspected that Gallar was trying to influence his peers to decide against the mayor’s favor.

The board member from Cabatuan, Iloilo denied Malones’ charges and did not wish to further engage the mayor in a verbal shootout related to the issue of “ghost employees.”

On September 9, the Iloilo Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Board) will render a verdict whether to suspend Malones.